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1. Search the forum. You can do this from the Advanced Search Page or from our Google Custom Search, which will search the entire PKP site. If you are encountering an error, we especially recommend searching the forum for said error.

2. Check the FAQ to see if your question or error has already been resolved.

3. Post a question, but please, only after trying the above two solutions. If it's a workflow or usability question you should probably post to the OJS Editorial Support and Discussion subforum; if you have a development question, try the OJS Development subforum.

The problem appears to be the Zend Optimizer; version 3.2.2 segfaults in certain cases. This is a Zend Optimizer bug -- no PHP code should be able to cause a segfault. I'm investigating, but in the meantime, please disable the Zend Optimizer. You may be able to accomplish this selectively on shared hosts using .htaccess directives; please ask your ISP for specifics.

I just wanted to add that I was having the same problem on a shared host (Dreamhost) and that the .htaccess approach was unsuccessful.

However, it proved very straightforward to install my own copy of PHP and disable Zend Optimizer in the php.ini file there; OJS now seems to be running fine once again.

Cheers,
Gerard

asmecher wrote:Hi all,

The problem appears to be the Zend Optimizer; version 3.2.2 segfaults in certain cases. This is a Zend Optimizer bug -- no PHP code should be able to cause a segfault. I'm investigating, but in the meantime, please disable the Zend Optimizer. You may be able to accomplish this selectively on shared hosts using .htaccess directives; please ask your ISP for specifics.

My site likewise is now down - we are using php 5.2.1 but I don't have the luxury of changing that - PLEASE when will there be a patch for this, at the moment we can do nothing but lose customers.
:cry:

No,
The ISP says
There is no way to downgrade PHP , I'm sorry but its up to php and zend to sort this problem out and we will upgrade as soon as any updates are given to correct this matter for you

I will pass this ticket to the manager for you, but I think he is aware of this problem and has looked into what could be done already, but as zend is server wide as is php it is not an easy fix as they need to fix the code really

The problem is not PHP -- you don't need to downgrade. The problem is the optional program Zend Optimizer, which should run transparently on top of PHP to improve performance. Unfortunately, it's buggy. They should be able to selectively disable it for your site -- on some servers, you can use an .htaccess directive to do this.

You can verify what version of Zend Optimizer you're using by running a phpinfo script and checking the output. If you're NOT using Zend Optimizer and you still find incompatibilities with the updated PHP, please let me know.

Hello I don't know if I have the same problem, but I have php 5.2 and zend optimizer. I have installed correctly ojs in localhost, now I want to install it in the server.
I have disabled zend optimizer for the domain: I have added the following line in .htaccess

php_flag eaccelerator.enable 0
php_flag eaccelerator.optimizer 0

(before also I have tried to blank php.ini, but nothing)

Well, with disabled zend now I have other problem: when I write the index.php to install I am redirected to /index.php/index/install.

The redirect to /index.php/index/install is expected behavior for an unconfigured OJS installation (i.e. "installed" is set to off in config.inc.php). At this URL, you should see the installation form.

I am having great difficulty getting anywhere with this Zend rendering bug that has prevented OJS from running - My ISP insists that they can't turn zend off for one account but they also say that zend is used by developers so that they can hide their code and protect it.
In their opinion therefore switching it off would only stop the script that is causing the problem in OJS from working.
Is this the case?

They have asked whether the script has an IonCube version?
They have changed a lot of their own code from the zend version to the IonCube version for similar reasons in zend.

Please help - I am not a programmer - I dont know PHP I just want to be able to get my site back up and running. The credibility of the journal I used to host is just about shot through!

Ah -- the bug under discussion in this thread is related to the Zend Optimizer product, but it sounds like you may not be using it. You can check by generating a phpinfo dump as follows: Create a script in your web root called info.php with the following contents:

asmecher wrote:We haven't had any experience with ionCube, but if that turns out to be the problem, I may be able to investigate in more detail.

Actually, I haven't mentioned it before, but I have a great deal of experience with using the ionCube optimizer for PHP. If your ISP is using the Zend Optimizer, then it's highly unlikely that your problems are related to ionCube, but if that is indeed the case, then please do let us know.

For those reading out of interest's sake, one of the reasons I've recommended clients to use ionCube for PHP accelleration in the past is that it works well in cases where Zend's products don't (and possibly vice-versa). So, those of you looking for PHP accelleration may wish to consider it as an alternative.

now what?
Is there any chance of a fix soon (ie in the next week or so rather than ...whenever..)
I have lost so much custom over this - to say nothing of credibility. The company is now looking at using an alternative to OJS because of the damage this has done.

I'm sorry about the trouble this has caused -- unfortunately there hasn't been much we have been able to do, as the problem is with the Zend Optimizer, not OJS. There are other frustrated users, for example, at http://www.zend.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=2529.

It looks like Zend Optimizer 3.2.4 has just been released, and there are claims on the Zend forum that it fixes the problem in some situations (although some bugs still exist from the looks of it). Ask your ISP to update when possible. In the meantime, I have come up with a work-around that avoids the broken function; you can add this to OJS by applying the patch at: